Leads are a great way to get your name and company out there and increase business. But what are leads? How do you get them? And what does it mean for your business to have leads?

Read on to learn more about lead generation, and how it helps your business succeed.

Leads are basically those persons who have expressed an interest in doing business with you. For some companies, whose product is very low cost and not something that would require alot of research, leads are less important. Their customers don’t take months to think about the purchase, like you would with buying something that cost more than a few hundred dollars. In these cases, you would approach bringing in more customers in a different way than lead generation.

But, for purposes of this article, we’ll talk about companies who do have a longer buying cycle and who frequently are selling to folks via a salesforce (even if it’s a one man shop and the owner is the salesforce). Leads will either request information from your website, maybe via downloading an offer that instructs them about the product/service or they will contact you via phone or in person. Leads have specifically said, ‘Hey, this product or information is of interest to me. As a business, your job after finding out they are interested is determining if your company can help them, and if so, turning them into customers.

Lead sources: Where to find leads?


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  • Word of mouth

  • Public speaking or online webinars

  • Networking - Join your local Chamber of Commerce if you meet a regional need

  • Advertising - Remember to choose a method that allows you to track the advertising. We <3 Native Advertising, if you do it ethically.

  • Websites with a Content Resource Center (Blog)

  • Social Media - Avoid spamming folks, and build a relationship instead.

  • Existing or past clients - Referrals are gold!

  • Media - Steer clear of just throwing out press releases via traditional distribution. It’s expensive and it doesn’t work. Reach out to individual writers who usually write about companies like yours.

  • Strategic partners or affiliates

To get leads interested and turn them into potential customers, you need to know your clients. What do they need and how can you help them? Your current clientele will represent who you want to attract, and by thinking like that, you’ll have a better idea of where and how to start. Create buyer personas for your typical customers and target your lead generation tactics toward those personas.

Although any of these sources could point potential customers to you and your business, if you are adept at content marketing, most leads will come from your website over other sources.

Increase Your Web Leads

  • Make your site appealing to the audience. Add pictures and make sure the color scheme works.

  • Pay attention to UX - User Experience is a big reason that people leave a website. Make sure it’s stupid-simple and remove anything that isn’t there for a purpose.

  • Be clear about your purpose. Keep navigation off of landing pages.

  • Keep text concise, headers bold and use convincing language in your heads and subheads. Many people only scan so make sure what stands out is motivating.

  • Add contact information. Even if the lead doesn’t call, a phone number communicates that you are able to be reached and adds trust.

  • Use key words and pharases to increase your SEO ranking. Read our SEO Primer to learn more about how Google ranks your website and how that influences which pages end up closer to the top of the list on search engines.

  • Create a contact page for viewers to ask you questions and share their information.

What are you doing now to attract potential customers? If it’s not working, you should consider doubling down on your content marketing efforts.

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